The actress dishes on her favorite holiday to entertain, her new documentary, and life post Desperate Housewives.

WHEN YOU STEP into Eva Longoria's Hollywood Hills home, you're immediately struck by how peaceful it is. Located in a quiet neighborhood tucked away from the frenetic energy of the Sunset Strip, it's warmly appointed, with a big, cozy living room. This late-summer day, the gauzy curtains that adorn the two French doors leading to the patio billow in a light breeze. Outside, sunlight glints off of the lap pool.

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For a woman who lives her life in the public eye, it's the perfect sanctuary. But peek into Eva's generous dining room, with its credenza scattered with family photos, and her kitchen, with its massive island surrounded by chairs, and suddenly you realize this is a house built for gatherings, designed by a lady who loves to entertain. And of all the days to do it, Eva loves one most of all.

"Thanksgiving! My favorite!" she squeals, scratching her 11-year-old Maltese snowball, Jinxy, under the chin. "My sisters, my parents, my friends, all of the misfits here in L.A. come. I cook everything: fry a turkey, roast a turkey, mash the potatoes, do the green beans, apple pies, everything from scratch. I'm the Latina Martha Stewart!" She laughs at her joke. "I mean, I wish!"

That she can find the time to cook any-thing more involved than Cup-a-Soup is a wonder. Since the show that made her a star, Desperate Housewives, went off the air in 2012, Eva, 39, hasn't wasted a moment. She's juggling a dizzying number of projects with her production company, UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, including Devious Maids, the Lifetime hit she executive-produces with Housewives creator Marc Cherry.

She's a L'Oréal spokesperson, a cookbook author and, with celebrity chef Todd English, co-owner of Beso Hollywood, a Latin American steakhouse. By 11 A.M. on the day we meet, she's already been to a production meeting across town. After we're done, she'll zip to a business lunch and then off to the hospital to visit a friend who's just given birth — her most important powwow of the day. "She's one of my best friends," Eva says. "I need to see the baby!"

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She's still performing, too: This month she guest-stars as Andy Samberg's love interest on the red-hot cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and this past summer she portrayed a Mexican woman trying to cross the border in the indie film Frontera. But the project nearest to her heart right now isn't an acting role, but a call to action. Food Chains, a documentary hitting theaters this fall that Eva co-executive-produced with Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, shines a light on the abuses and dangers American farmworkers face every day on the job. "Right now, there's an all-time interest in food.

Whether you're a vegan, gluten-free, soy-free or lactose-free, everybody is very conscious of what they're eating. But they're not conscious of the people who pick what they eat," says Eva, who first became interested in the issue 20 years ago through one of her mentors, famed United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta. Farm laborers are often underpaid, Eva says, and sometimes even abused or enslaved. And the health risks posed by their exposure to pesticides are serious. "People are like, 'I eat organic because I don't want to eat pesticides.' But I eat organic because it means farmworkers weren't sprayed by pesticides." As Americans get ready to tuck into their Thanksgiving dinners, she's hoping to raise awareness: "Buying organic literally saves lives."

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It's an important project — and a far cry from the show that gave Eva a public platform. "I needed people to forget me as Gaby Solis," she says, citing her Golden Globe–nominated turn as Housewives' resident troublemaker, a character best known for cheating on her husband with the gardener. "I [stopped] acting on purpose. I wanted to be behind the camera, and I also wanted to travel and take time off."

There were other reasons to get away. In 2011, Eva finalized her divorce from her husband of three years, NBA star Tony Parker. The split took a heavy toll: "I was not eating. I was depressed. I was sad. My diet was coffee," Eva told Dr. Oz last year in an appearance on his show. But as she poured herself into work she believed in — stumping for Barack Obama in 2012; visiting farmers in Guatemala with her "philanthropy partner in crime," Howard G. Buffett, son of bighearted billionaire Warren; studying for her master's degree in Chicano studies and political science at California State University, Northridge, which she completed in May 2013 — she began to heal.

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"It was gradual," Eva says, but today she's happy. And happiest, she adds, when she's at home, preparing a meal for the people she loves. Says her friend celebrity stylist Robert Verdi: "She's just a down-home girl whose home is open to all of her friends and family."

THE REAL HOUSEWIFE

It would be tough to tally the number of photographs that litter the walls and tables in Eva's home. There's one of her snuggling up to Extra host Mario Lopez, a longtime pal, and another of her posing with Bon Jovi. "I'm an eighties freak!" she gushes. "They're my favorite band of all time."

But the great majority of the pictures are of the most cherished people in Eva's life: her family. Born in Corpus Christi, TX, the youngest of Enrique and Ella Longoria's four daughters, Eva grew up idolizing her older sisters: Elizabeth (Liza), Emily and Esmeralda. "They were my role models," says Eva. Her parents, Enrique, a military engineer, and Ella, a special-education teacher, "were amazing, strong influences," she continues. But it was her sister Liza, born with special needs, who taught her the most about resilience, hard work and the true meaning of love.

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"Liza was a preemie. Her brain did not finish developing," Eva says. "My mom became a teacher's assistant so she could stay in the classroom with her and [later] became a teacher. She would go to work and then have dinner on the table for a family of six by 5:30 P.M. Growing up with a family that dedicated their lives to one family member changes the way you see the world. You appreciate the lack of challenges you have in your life."

"The challenge for my sister to tie her shoes and get dressed in the morning is a victory she wins every day," Eva adds. "She's just amazing — the light of our family."

A bright high school cheerleader who went on to graduate from Texas A&M University-Kingsville with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology, Eva, too, brought joy to the Longoria home. In 1998, she clinched the Miss Corpus Christi crown, an event that changed the course of her life. "[After the pageant,] my prize package was a trip to L.A. to compete in a modeling and talent competition," Eva says. "It was just going to be a little vacation — until I won everything in my category and all these managers and agents wanted to sign me! I didn't actually aspire to be an actress. Literally, I just took a left turn."

In Hollywood, Eva cast her lot with the rest of the city's starving artists, finding work as an extra on movies and TV shows to make her portion of the rent for the "crappy one-bedroom" she shared with three other roommates, all fellow actors. "Extra work meant long days, but you got fed," she says. "I would steal the fruit [from the set], put a banana in my bag. My roommate would take the toilet paper home. It was horrible. One time I called home crying. I had no money, so my mom sent $20 in the mail. But I was born with optimism."

Her determination and sunny attitude paid off. In 2001, Eva won her breakout role as the psychopath Isabella Braña on the daytime soap The Young and the Restless. Then, in 2004, she landed the part of a lifetime. "When I first got the script, I could tell it was different. The writing was great," Eva says of being tapped for Housewives. For eight seasons she garnered rave reviews, holding her own among an ensemble of heavy-hitters that included multiple-time Golden Globe and Emmy nominees Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman and Teri Hatcher. "I never expected it to get as big as it did," says Eva. "You only dream of that. The show was life-changing. I'll always hold those memories very dear to my heart."

Just as Housewives was taking off, Eva met and fell in love with handsome Frenchman Parker, a star point guard for the San Antonio Spurs. They wed in 2007 and seemed blissfully happy — until 2010, when Eva reportedly discovered dozens of text-messages from the estranged wife of one of Parker's former teammates on his phone. Afterward, Eva admitted that the divorce (her second — her first husband was General Hospital actor Tyler Christopher) had left her filled with self-doubt. "I had moments of I'm not sexy enough? I'm not pretty enough? Am I not smart enough?" she told celebrity photographer Amanda de Cadenet in an episode of de Cadenet's Lifetime series, The Conversation With Amanda de Cadenet. "But in so many of those questions, I immediately stopped, and I go, No, don't start doing that. Because you can get stuck in that cycle."

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BETTER THAN EVER

Today, it's clear that Eva has come out on the other side. Less than a week before our interview, Parker married French journalist Axelle Francine, the mother of his 6-month-old son — but whenever Eva discusses him with me, it's always without a trace of bitterness. "He was a cheese freak," she says when the conversation turns to food. "He could have goat cheese morning, noon and night."

More proof that Parker and the divorce are behind her: Eva's yearlong romance with Jose "Pepe" Antonio Baston, the 45-year-old president of Televisa, Latin America's largest media company. When I mention having seen a set of very sweet photos of them frolicking on a recent trip to Spain and Italy, Eva smiles. "I don't really like to talk about him because he's super-private," she apologizes. "But he's fun. Everything's great. I'm happy." But is it love? I ask. She smiles again, hesitating for a moment. "I'm really happy," she says simply. "Really happy."

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She looks that way. When we get to talking about the milestone birthday on her horizon — the big 4-0, which she'll celebrate next March — Eva says, "I'm excited about it. It's something I'm welcoming with open arms. My girlfriends and I were talking about this, because we're all turning this age, and none of us have had a breakdown over it. We're like, 'Yay! 40! Cabo? Where are we celebrating?' "

Knowing how important family is to Eva, I ask if she's thinking of having children of her own. "I never had a desire to procreate," she confides, "but I've always wanted a family. When I was married [to Parker], I was like, Oh, I definitely want a family with this person. But now that I'm out of a traditional relationship, it's not really something [I feel I need to do]. I've never thought, I need to physically birth a baby…and who knows? It may change."

For now, she's content to bring her enormous "family" — blood relatives and honorary ones — together under her roof whenever the opportunity arises. This Thanksgiving, she'll prepare her specialties — which taste best, she advises, when made the day before: her apple pie (she uses Martha Stewart's recipe) and the cranberry poached pears she puts out in place of traditional cranberry sauce.

"I learned to cook from my Aunt Elsa," says Eva, who dedicated her cookbook to her late aunt, a former caterer. "It's therapeutic for me." Dressing her holiday table is a treat, too. At past gatherings, in place of napkin rings, she's used Mexican tin ornaments, and she sometimes sets out small sentimental favors, such as fun framed photos of her and her guests. "I shop all year round to collect the perfect place mats and plates," she says.

Before we part ways, I ask Eva what she'll be most thankful for this year. "Definitely my health," she says, "and my family's health." A few weeks later, over e-mail, she expands on her answer. I've been fortunate, she writes. I have a lot of passions in life. I love traveling and learning. I think I would be interested in getting my doctorate. I keep going back and forth: Do I want to go to law school?

Given Eva's manic schedule, that would be quite the undertaking. But then, remember: This is the unsinkable Eva Longoria we're talking about. You have more time in the day than you think you do, she adds. I still have a lot more to learn.

In the meantime, though, we'll be taking lessons from Eva. Now, about those cranberry poached pears….

"I wouldn't change a thing [in my life]. I think everything happened the way it was meant to happen, and it's brought me here today."

ONE SMART COOKIE

Eva went to school at night, after long days on the Housewives set, to get her master's degree. One life lesson she's learned? "People judge women and put them in a box. Like, 'You can be the smart one; she's the fun one; she's the hard worker; she's the career one.' It's like, 'No, we're all of these things.' You can be the mom and the career woman, smart and pretty, ambitious but soft."